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Two Dead And 8 Injured At A Michigan Mormon Church; Mayor Adams Exits Mayoral Quits Reelection Bid; GOP Leaders Dismissing President Trump's Role On Comey's Indictment; Russia Attacks Ukraine; FAA Keeps Caps On Flights at Newark Airport For A Year. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired September 28, 2025 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[17:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the "CNN Newsroom." I'm Jessica Dean here in New York. In just moments, police will be giving an update on a mass shooting at a Michigan church where hundreds of worshipers were inside. Authorities say the shooter in that shooting used an assault rifle, killing two people and wounding at least eight others. And you see that dark smoke coming from that church. The police chief saying at some point during the rampage, the attacker set fire to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township. That's about an hour's drive northeast of Detroit.

The chief saying the 40-year-old gunman was killed in a shootout with officers. Again, we are waiting on a news conference to get the very latest. First, I do want to go to CNN's Julia Vargas Jones. Julia, we're keeping our eye on that news conference. In the meantime, bring everybody up to speed on what we may learn at this news conference and if they expect to find more victims because of the fire.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is one of the key questions here where we're expecting to hear from authorities is an update on the number of victims. We do know at least 10 were transported to a hospital with gunshot wounds. Two of those victims then, Jessica, have died. But the police chief said earlier today that they expect many more victims as they go through that scene. We see that smoke. We see how difficult that scene looks.

Now, one of the key questions here is how that fire was set. They said there was an explosive device found potentially at the scene. That was being investigated. Was that the cause of the fire? We hope to learn soon. We'll also learn about these other victims. As of now, we do know that some of the people that were transported to hospital had very serious injuries. Some of those were children, Jessica.

We also learned that some of them have been transported to some of different hospitals in the area. The way that this attack happened as you --

DEAN: Okay, Julia, I'm going to interrupt you. I'm sorry. We're going to listen in on this press conference.

(BEGIN LIVE VIDEO) WILLIAM RENYE, CHIEF, GRAND BLANC TOWNSHP POLICE: You got with me on stage, U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, Rubin Gleeman, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF James Deere, Grambling Township Supervisor Scott Bennett, Grambling Township Fire Chief Gent, Genesee County Sheriff's Department Sheriff Chris Watson and MSP Michigan State Police Captain Greg Marenco.

I'm going to provide an update from the incident that we spoke about earlier today. It occurred at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 10:25 a.m. I want to talk about our officer's response. That call came out at 10:25 a.m. and 57 or 20 -- 32 seconds. We had officers on scene at 10:25 and 57 seconds. The suspect, again, we're in the preliminary stages right now, was neutralized at 10:33:44 in the parking lot of that church.

That suspect is a 40-year-old male from the city of Burton who we identified as Thomas Jacob Sanford. That's Thomas Jacob Sanford, S-A- N-F-O-R-D. Currently where we're at, an update, I gave you 10 victims who were victims of gunshot. Since then, we have two victims who are now deceased. One additional. One had died at a local hospital. And again, that suspect is deceased as well. Seven other victims at this time are in stable condition. One is in critical condition.

Now for the reunification, I had a question earlier about, hey, where can people call to see if their loved one is okay at the reunification center? I want to provide a number for you for that. It's 248-705- 7352. Also, I know that our community is hurting right now and we want to provide some resources for our community moving forward. At the Genesis Athletic Club in Grand Blanc for Monday and Tuesday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. we will have services for the community from Wednesday to Friday. Those services will be available to our community at the Grand Blanc Senior Center.

[17:05:02]

That's all I have for now. I will give you another update, another press conference at 8:00 p.m. Thank you.

(END LIVE VIDEO)

DEAN: Okay, that is the latest from Grand Blanc Township in Michigan in which law enforcement did identify the shooter as a 40-year-old named Thomas Sanford. They confirmed, as Julia was telling us, that two people are dead. Others are in various states at the hospital where they are receiving treatment.

Again, going back to the question though that we still have right now, which is as you see in some of this video, there was a massive fire that also happened at that church and we're trying to figure out how many victims, if there were victims, because of the fire as well. Again, they did not take any questions at that press conference. So it is -- we just don't know at this moment. I think we want to go back to Julia right now. Is she standing by? Julia, I know you've been following this.

JONES: Yeah, Jessica. DEAN: Yeah, I know you've been following this. What did you take away

from that press conference?

JONES: Well, very little. I mean, it is important to get that update on those victims. But the main questions and something that investigators had talked about that that very police chief talked about earlier today was how that fire started. Now, right before we went into the press conference, I was about to explain to our viewers how this took place. You know, what we know at this point is there was a vehicle that was rammed through the front doors of that church. And then the shooter walks out of the vehicle and starts shooting. But at that same time, that is when a fire starts.

Now, one of the key questions investigators will be looking into is, was that due to an improvised explosive device that was found on the property of the church? Was that placed there today, right before the attack? Was that something that had been placed previous to this attack? As well as the motive. And one of the things that we have been seeing also from CNN affiliates who are on the scene is a movement of different bomb squad teams.

Now we have seen a movement of those to a residential area. We don't know what is it that they are looking for. It could be related to this explosive device found on the scene. And again, Jessica, this is -- at this point, we know so very little about this man, but as we find out more, one of the key questions here is motive. Did this person have any kind of relation to the church or was this an act of violence, of political violence, of religious violence?

As this church as well, I wanted to point out to our viewers that this is a day after the leader of the church had passed away. Just yesterday, the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell Nelson, died at the age of 101. This morning's service, I wonder if they had any mention of this, but certainly a double tragedy for this community that was already reeling from the loss of their leader just the night before.

We did have a statement from the church, from the national church from this morning that it was issued that called this a tragic act of violence. They said that during that Sunday worship, the gunman opened fire and early reports indicate that multiple individuals were injured as we know. They were asking for cooperation with local authorities as these details still become available. They are working. with investigators as they continue to assess the condition of these people affected. Now, we're learning as well that we will be hearing more from those authorities in a press conference later on tonight.

DEAN: All right, Julia Vargas Jones with the Latest. Thank you so much. I want to bring in Homeland Security Analyst, Donell Harvin. Donell, thanks for being here with us. Okay, there's a lot of questions, as Julia was just laying out, that hours after this has happened, we still don't really have any answers to. First being, how this fire really complicates a mass shooting investigation at a church. Take us through all of those layers.

DONELL HARVIN, HOMELAND SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah, and sometimes it's what they don't say that you get a lot of information from. I know Julia said that we were looking, that was a pretty abrupt conference, but I've sat in on these, I've provided information for these. One thing that he mentioned was family reunification. I think that's really critical for understanding the investigation. What happens is that, you know, sometimes you miss church, right? We're all probably guilty of not going to church or a synagogue or wherever you pray at, but people may have thought you've gone there.

[17:09:55]

And so what the family reunification allows individuals to do is to find out if their missing loved one is either at the hospital, maybe just separated from their phone, or may still be in the building. We heard reports that there may be other individuals still in the building that they're still searching. It's very complicated if there's an active fire. And so once they have what they call a manifest, who was there, right? This is what we call an open manifest in forensics.

They can start trying to track down where people are and I think that's really important because once the shooting starts, once the fire starts, people aren't gonna pick up their phone. They become separated from their personal effects. They become separated from their phones. They may have made it out safely, but have no way to contact people. And that's where the reunification comes into play.

DEAN: Yeah, and your heart just aches for families and friends who are waiting to get information, trying to track down their loved ones. This is just -- it is a true nightmare scenario. And, it just, again, here we are on a Sunday in America and another church has been attacked by a shooter. It is just a place where people go for peace and they go to worship and they were not safe there.

HARVIN: Yeah. I mean, it seems like every week there's another tragedy. Just a few weeks ago, we were reporting on children in the first week of their school in Minnesota, praying before school starts and they were attacked. And so, you know, unfortunately, houses of worship are the softest of softest targets. I mean, let's just call it what it is. Schools are very soft, but you know, this may be a crime of opportunity, knowing that houses of worship are soft.

This may be a targeted crime. We don't know. It's still very early in the investigation. I've worked with houses of worship for many, many years trying to harden their security postures just for these types of incidents and we've seen horrific ones over the last decade or so. And unfortunately, this looks like another one.

DEAN: Yeah. And to your point, we're told that the suspect rammed their vehicle into the church. You know, I mean, that -- when you talk about trying to secure a perimeter and secure entrances, someone using a vehicle in that way, it's very difficult to protect against that.

HARVIN: I mean, almost impossible. I mean, what are we going to do? Make houses of worship like federal installations or military bases? What this actually shows, and once again, I teach this. We were just talking about racially motivated and religiously motivated violence in class on Thursday. This was the lecture. What this shows is that if this actor was planning on and had you know, cased out or done pre- operational surveillance, they may have come up with a tactic that maximizes fatalities.

And I hate to say this, when people -- there maybe family members or friends who are watching this, I'm very cognizant of that and looking for information, but that's what these actors do. They look for tactics, techniques, and procedures that maximize damage. And certainly this looks like a relatively new type of what we call hybrid threat, where not only are you, vehicle ramming to maybe get some chaos, but you're also shooting into a crowd and may have, it seems like potentially, started the fire.

That all creates chaos. It could create what we call a fatal funnel, trying to drive people towards one location. And just fortunately, one thing I did take away from the press conference that the local law enforcement had, law enforcement got there really, really quick and stopped this attack before it could have gotten worse.

DEAN: Yeah, they did. Just seconds, they said they were there. But still a community just absolutely heartbroken. Donell Harvin, thank you so much. We're going to, of course, continue to follow the story and bring you updates as we get them. We do expect more throughout the evening. Donell, thank you very much.

Let's bring you back here to New York City where with just five weeks to go until Election Day, New York City's Mayor Eric Adams says he's dropping out of the mayoral race, blaming constant media scrutiny and a lack of funding. And the move could strengthen former New York governor Andrew Cuomo's bid after Cuomo was easily toppled in the Democratic primary in June by Zohran Mamdani -- Mamdani. Let's bring in Gloria Pazmino. Gloria, there are a lot of questions. Do these voters automatically go to Cuomo? Who's to say? But certainly it does change the dynamics a little bit of this race.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and you're asking exactly the right and only question, honestly, at this point. Is this going to significantly improve chances for the former governor. This whole theory behind and Mayor Eric Adams dropping out of the race is that if he drops out, the coalescing of the vote would happen behind Andrew Cuomo. But the recent polling that we've seen around this race, Jessica, doesn't suggest that that will be the case.

Now, the mayor made the announcement earlier today. He posted a video on social media, an eight-minute long video where he largely talked about the accomplishments of his administration, but he said that because of his inability to raise money, he was not able to put on a good campaign that would stand a chance to actually beat the Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

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You might remember Eric Adams chose to sit out the primary in order to run as an independent in the general election. He said that he was not able to raise money. He blamed the media in part for trying to undermine his campaign. But the reality is that despite Eric Adams' accomplishments in the last three, almost four years, he also had a constant cloud of scandals and corruption around him, including his own federal corruption indictment last spring.

And it was since that moment that we saw sort of the unraveling of the Adams administration. Several of his top aides were also accused of corruption and that was something that the mayor simply could not get out from under. So even though he blamed the media, he blamed his inability to raise money in that video, he said that he was dropping from the race because he believes that it was ultimately the best thing he could do for the city of New York.

Now, former governor Andrew Cuomo praising the current mayor, Eric Adams, saying that this was not an easy decision for him to make, but that it was the right decision for New York City. And I've been speaking to my sources both in the Adams campaign, the Cuomo campaign, and the Mamdani campaign. And I can tell you that of the three of them, Cuomo's campaign is hoping that this is going to bring more funding, more money into their election bid. While Mamdani's people are telling me that they are not worried at all. They say that they beat Andrew Cuomo in the primary and that they expect to do it again in the general, which is in less than five weeks, Jessica.

DEAN: Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for that. Let's bring in Jeff Coltin. He's been covering New York City politics for over a decade and co-writes Politico's "New York Playbook." Jeff, thanks for jumping on with us. We really appreciate it. Look, there was a moment a few weeks ago when Mayor Adams had this press conference to say he's staying in the race, despite all these rumors swirling around. It had happened right after news broke that he'd met with members of the Trump administration. What changed?

JEFF COLTIN, CO-AUTHOR, POLITICO'S NEW YORK PLAYBOOK: That has been a saga. Everybody has been waiting to find out. Is Eric Adams going to drop out? Yes, he announced that he was not going to drop out a month ago. And, you know, my colleagues and I, we wrote a story just days later saying that nobody believes Eric Adams. Everybody still believed he would drop out. Sure enough, here we are.

What changed? I think the fact is that nothing changed. The fact is that he was hoping this entire time that maybe he could somehow grasp onto a path to victory, but it just became clear that there was no path. As Gloria said, Mayor Adams is historically unpopular. His approval ratings in New York City are the lowest in modern history of a mayor. And just he wasn't gaining any ground.

Mamdani, seems to be holding on to a steady lead in all of the polls. And I think this move was less about Eric Adams trying to affect the race, less about Adams trying to stop Mamdani or help Cuomo. I think this move was about Adams thinking about his legacy. And the whole video, most of this eight minute dropout video was saying I have done a good job. History is going to be kind to me. Shootings and crime are down. I'm building more housing. So I think Eric Adams was mostly thinking about trying to leave this race with his head held high rather than having an embarrassing result on Election Day.

DEAN: Yeas, as the sitting mayor. Former Governor Cuomo really needs this to be a two-man race if he has any shot at -- real shot at winning. Do you all have any indication that Curtis Sliwa, the Republican, has any intention of getting out? Because as it currently stands, there's many of them. There's not two.

COLTIN: Yeah, yeah. No, Curtis Sliwa has been very consistent that he is not dropping out. He is the Republican nominee and he intends to stay in. Funny enough, President Trump doesn't like him. He is a Republican nominee in New York City and Trump has publicly said he doesn't like Curtis. He's not the best that the party has put forward. You know, that said, that probably actually helps Sliwa in New York City.

Eric Adams is unpopular. Donald Trump is even less popular in New York City than Eric Adams. So, it's a difficult conundrum there. However, Sliwa consistently says he's going to stay in the race. And Andrew Cuomo, his goal here is not even really to get Sliwa to drop out. Andrew Cuomo's goal is just to make New Yorkers feel like this is really a two-person race. You know, in the Democratic primary, there were like 11 or 13 candidates on the ballot, but it really came down to just Mamdani and Cuomo.

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And a lot of people, a lot of voters that would have supported somebody else, they chose between those two because it felt like a two-person race. And I think Cuomo is really hoping that he gets that in the general election and convinces voters that it's effectively just between him and Mamdani. If you vote for Sliwa, you're throwing your vote away.

Of course, Sliwa himself, a lot of his supporters, they're making the same argument, you know, that this is a two-person race and Sliwa is the only person that can beat Mamdani. So Mamdani is still, as Gloria said, feeling quite confident going into the general election just six weeks away.

DEAN: I know. We're almost there. Jeff Coltin, good to see you. Thanks for that. We appreciate it.

COLTIN: Thank you.

DEAN: And coming up, Republican leaders are downplaying President Trump's role in the indictment of James Comey. A former deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush weighs in on that.

Plus, Russia fires more than 600 drones and missiles at targets across Ukraine, one of the largest aerial attacks since the start of the war.

And if you happen to fly in or out of Newark Airport in New Jersey, the FAA says they will continue to limit arrivals and departures through next year. We've got details on that. You're on the "CNN Newsroom."

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[17:25:00] DEAN: Republican leaders today downplaying President Trump's role in the criminal indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. This is despite Trump publicly pushing his attorney general to bring charges just days before the statute of limitations was set to expire on that. Comey has vowed to fight the charges with an arraignment set for October 9th. We're joined now by former Deputy Assistant Attorney General under President George W. Bush, Tom Dupree. Tom, thanks so much for being here with us.

As we sit here today, we now have a little over a week until we get to October 9th. How do you see this playing out as we get closer to that and what about this political noise that is very loud around this case?

TOM DUPREE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: Sure. Well, Jessica, in normal criminal cases, the arraignment is kind of a boring event. The defendant typically comes into court. The judge advises the defendant of the charges he's facing. And then the judge accepts a plea, which in this case, I suspect, will be short and sweet and Comey will plead not guilty.

But the thing I think we want to keep our eye on, on October 9th, is whether or not either side, either the defense or the prosecution makes public statements, whether or not they're statements from the courthouse steps. We've seen Comey has already released a video. We've seen the Justice Department prosecutors not at all being shy about speaking out of what they see as the merit for this prosecution.

So on October 9th, it may well be that the events occurring in court are almost an afterthought to the fireworks we could see on the courthouse steps.

DEAN: Yeah. And so, legally, let's take a look at this because just to remind everyone they were trying for three indictments. They got two out of three. What does it tell you? What does that tell you? And where do you think or how strong do you think this case actually is?

DUPREE: Well, the fact the jury declined to indict on one of the three charges the prosecutor saw is pretty significant. It is a truism that prosecutors can indict a ham sandwich, grand juries play and the system is kind of tilted in favor of the prosecutor. And so typically prosecutors bat the thousand when they go into a grand jury and they ask for indictments on multiple counts. That didn't happen here, which does suggest that at least in the minds of the grand jurors, the administration may have overstepped a bit.

As far as the two charges that did stick, look, I mean, the indictment is fairly thin. You know, we've seen other indictments and high profile political cases that are what are known as speaking indictments. They basically tell a story over the course of 50, 60, 70 pages or more. This is the antithesis of a speaking indictment. It's a page and a half. The charges are very bare bones. It appears that they're simply going in on one false statement count and one obstruction count.

Now, of course, the Justice Department will present more evidence, presumably at trial. So we'll have to wait and see what they come up with. But as far as their first effort and the indictment, leaves a little bit to be desired, in my opinion.

DEAN: And Comey's Deputy FBI Director at the time, Andrew McCabe, says so far no one's reached out to him on this. We should note also that he, Andrew McCabe, is a CNN contributor. But here's what he told Jake Tapper this morning. I just want to play a short clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: I've not been contacted. I haven't been interviewed. They're not asked to interview me. And of course, if my interactions with Jim Comey nine years ago in October 2016 was going to be the basis of this entire prosecution, it's unbelievable to think that prosecutors wouldn't at least want to sit down and hear what I had to say about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Does it surprise you that they have not reached out to him?

DUPREE: Well, in my judgment, I think it almost confirms Jake's reporting on this. Jake was reporting that what the Justice Department is charging is not the conflict with McCabe and Comey testimony, but rather Comey's alleged authorization of Dan Richmond, that's his friend who he allegedly authorized to leak information. So the fact that McCabe has not yet been contacted by prosecutors suggests to me that that obstruction charge, the false statement charge, they're going after Richmond, not after the McCabe issue.

DEAN: I want to ask you about another branch of this tree, let's call it. On the campaign trail, the president said that he would go after his perceived enemies. So we see now the James Comey indictment.

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But also, in the last several days, he has called for the firing of Lisa Monica, who served in the Biden administration, but is now at a private company at Microsoft. He's also threatened ABC over Jimmy Kimmel and what might happen there. Um, how unprecedented is it for a president to be putting pressure like this on private companies to do something about with their employees?

DUPREE: Well, it's entirely without precedent, at least the fact that the president appears to basically be directing specific criminal prosecutions of specific people.

This is not the Justice Department that I served in. Historically, there has been a firewall between the Justice Department and the White House, precisely to insulate the prosecutorial process from political interference. The Trump administration has blown long past that. We saw that extraordinary message that the president sent to Pam Bondi where he basically said, you got to put someone in this prosecutor role who will charge Jim Comey. And by God, that's exactly what happened in a matter of days. So, we're in a bit of uncharted territory. And one interesting thing that I'm going to keep keeping my eye on as this plays out is how the federal judges react to this. The judges are well aware of the tradition of the Justice Department, prosecutorial independence, and it will be very interesting to see if the judges look at these charges maybe with a little bit more skepticism than they otherwise might.

DEAN: Yeah. Again, worth reminding everyone that the U.S. attorney there was pushed out, a conservative, and replaced with Trump's former private attorney who had never presented before a grand jury or prosecuted a case before. Tom Dupree, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

DUPREE: Thank you.

DEAN: Coming up, Russia's attack. Russia's latest major attack against Ukraine since the start of the war, what it means for Ukraine's future and U.S. support. We'll talk more about it. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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[17:35:00]

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DEAN: Russia fired more than 600 drones and missiles at targets across Ukraine earlier this morning in one of the largest aerial barrages since the start of the war.

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(EXPLOSIONS)

DEAN: The attacks reportedly killed at least four people in Kiev and wounded dozens more. Ukraine's air force said its air defense shot down or deflected dozens of missiles and most of the drones.

We're joined now by Jill Dougherty, CNN contributor and former CNN Moscow bureau chief and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. Jill, thank you so much for being here with us. We appreciate it. Uh, it's yet another Sunday where we say Russia has done X thing that is the worst or the first that they have done after over three years of war. Where is Russia right now and what are they hoping to accomplish here?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. I mean, that really is a question because you're right. I was thinking the very same thing. You know, every day, we're saying it's the worst since the beginning. I think, on the one hand, you know, their strategy has a lot of parts to it.

So, dealing directly with the war, the kinetic part of the war against Ukraine, they are trying to exhaust, they're trying to terrorize, they're trying to make Ukrainians simply give up and think that it's too much. So, this constant bombardment, they would deny, of course, as usual, that they are bombing civilian targets but, obviously, civilians are dying and they are being bombed.

You know, then I think there's another part to this which is they -- they -- you have, and I know we'll probably talk about it, but you have the drones and the MiG fighters that have gone into the West. That's another way of kind of, you know, fighting the war with lack of clarity. You know, is it an attack? Is it not? And then you have the role of China. And then you have the role of the United States and Russia. So, they're pressing on all of those different parts in different ways.

DEAN: Uh-hmm. Okay. And so, let's -- and in -- and in the midst of all of that, because I do want to touch on those other issues you said, but for the first time, we heard President Trump say this week, he thinks Ukraine can win this war. How do you think that landed with President Putin?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think maybe the Russians are as confused as everyone else. I mean, that was a 180. There was a lot of confusion here in the United States and among our allies. And it could be that the Russians are confused by it, too. So, they're continuing with, you know, again, attacking Ukraine, but they're doing other things to try to figure out exactly what Trump means. And to me, that kind of boils down to they're testing the West, and then they're also testing how the United States is working or not working with its allies.

DEAN: Hmm. And -- and -- and to that end, this testing of NATO, these NATO countries that you mentioned that have reported some drones flying into their airspace, they're blaming Russia. And I know you and I talked before. You -- you said this is like -- they like to leave things kind of nebulous. Did they really do it on purpose? What is their true intention? What -- the fact is these things continue to happen. Do you think, at this point, it's looking more like a test for the West and testing NATO or is it something else?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think it's a number of different things. It is a test. I mean, when they come close like -- let's say there were two different types of things. There were the drones that came into Poland. They also were close to Romania. Then they have the MiGs. You know, the fighter jets up in Estonia.

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So, they're coming in in different ways. And, you know, in an immediate fashion, let's see how the, you know, West reacts, how does NATO react, how many minutes does it take, what do they do. And then we have this big debate about should they be shot down, should they not.

And here's where you had those surprising comments by President Trump. Yes, he said, the allies should shoot them down. And then he also said Ukraine can win back the territory that it has lost and maybe even more. So, you know, the Russians look at that. I don't think they quite believe or they're on board with everything that he's saying. And if you look at the -- very carefully at what President Trump said, at the end of all of that last week, he said, good luck to both sides.

DEAN: Hmm.

DOUGHERTY: So, you know, what are we to understand by that? So, I would say Russians, you know, exploit what they can, test where they can. And really importantly, it's testing what does the United States do when the allies, when NATO allies are tested. And that, to me, is the question. The Russians are saying, will the U.S. come to the aid of its NATO allies?

DEAN: Right. That is -- that is the -- the big question here. All right, Jill Dougherty, good to see you, thank you so much.

DOUGHERTY: Thank you.

DEAN: Coming up, the FAA is extending flight restrictions on arrivals and departures at Newark Airport through October 2026. CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo joins us on the implications. That's next. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: The Federal Aviation Administration will keep a tight cap on the number of flights that can fly in and out of Newark Airport for the next year. The flight numbers were restricted after several communication and radar blackouts at the airport this year that left air traffic controllers unable to track planes, leading to thousands of flights being canceled. The FAA says its goal is -- quote -- "smoother travel into and out of Newark while it deals with staffing and equipment challenges."

CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo joins us now. Mary, thank you for being here with us. What do you think about these new restrictions and the extension of them?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, it's necessary medicine. And so, what should happen is the delays will be decreased or continue to be decreased and the cancellations will decrease. And the public may not notice it, but safety will be increased because we still have staffing shortages system-wide on the FAA.

But Congress did give the FAA $12.5 billion to fix those telecom lines, to do those other things, and to make improvements. So, it actually will very much help the situation, help the public's experience. But they still have ways to go to get everything fixed. There's a lot of equipment needs and a lot of staffing needs.

DEAN: But you see this -- it sounds like the right step right now.

SCHIAVO: Absolutely, it has to be done. You know, they're on their way back to the full contingent of flights. They were reduced to 68 an hour, then 72. Now, they're on their way to 80. And some airlines did voluntarily reduce. But when you have air traffic controllers out on trauma leave, remember that happened earlier in the year, you just can't operate a system like that. So, this is needed. Good move.

DEAN: Yeah. I also want to ask you about -- this has to do with the January midair collision with that American Airlines flight and how -- the government helicopter, military helicopter. We have learned that the first federal lawsuit over that crash has been filed by the family of a man who died in that crash. Are you expecting more lawsuits like this?

SCHIAVO: Yes, there will be more. So, what has to happen. And there's little doubt about who has to be sued after the hearings before the NTSB and July 30th through August 1. I mean, FAA got a blistering interrogation. They got more criticism than the army although that was some of the sloppiest flying and poor equipment that I've ever seen in congested airspace.

But because of those two government entities, according to the NTSB hearings, are definitely at fault, you have to first file a notice with the federal government called the Federal Tort Claims Act notice and the government has six months to respond. And you can't file suit until you file that notice and either get a response or no answer. So that's why they're just starting now. And there will be many more.

I do anticipate everyone will file a suit unless the government does what it should do and immediately admit responsibility. And then what happens is they go straight to the damages phase. A federal judge decides how much each family is owed.

DEAN: All right. We will see what comes out of that. Mary, good to see you. Thank you so much for being here.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

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DEAN: You are looking live at the Superdome in New Orleans on what is a beautiful Sunday afternoon there. You know, America is often compared to a melting pot, but there in New Orleans, that pot is filled with gumbo.

A new CNN Original Series, "New Orleans: Soul of a City," premieres next Sunday night with the first episode looking at the cultures that created New Orleans's legendary cuisine. Here's a preview of that.

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BRETT ANDERSON, FOOD CORRESPONDENT, NEW YORK TIMES: When people think about New Orleans food, they think about gumbo, jambalaya, muffalettas, po'boys, beignets. And it's a place where people around the world want to come. And one of the primary sources of pride.

[17:55:00]

FRANK BRIGTSEN, CHEF, BRIGSTSEN'S: And we have this rich heritage built over the last centuries from many, cultural sources. It's like a tapestry.

UNKNOWN: We have restaurants here that are older than most cities in America. There's tremendous respect for tradition.

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DEAN: "New Orleans: Soul of a City" airs next Sunday night at 10 Eastern and Pacific here on CNN. Still ahead tonight, we are following that breaking news on a shooting and fire attack on a Michigan church where hundreds of people were worshipping this morning. A live report is straight ahead.

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